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Title: The Dumbest Generation
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URL Source: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=273845
Published: Mar 12, 2011
Author: Patrice Lewis
Post Date: 2011-03-12 22:57:02 by Mad Dog
Keywords: None
Views: 3446
Comments: 18
Our younger daughter (age 12) recently saw a movie called "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." The plot involves a Victorian-era man played by Sean Connery (swoon, thud) who gathers together some of the most famous characters from literature, including Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll, Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo, etc. on a secret mission to fight a technological madman. My daughter loved the movie and decided she wanted to read all the books concerning the characters. So far she's read "The Portrait of Dorian Gray," "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." We have all the volumes in our personal library of 5,000-plus books, so she can just pick them up as she wishes. Now let me jump subjects a bit. Occasionally I am in a position to hear a friend's 11-year-old son read out loud. This boy comes from a stable, intact family and there's nothing wrong with his intelligence – except he is, for all intents and purposes, illiterate. He can read, but barely; and he has no comprehension of what he's reading. This puzzled and concerned me for the longest time. How could a kid from such a great family be effectively unable to read? Then it dawned on me: Books are not a part of his life. There are none to be found in his home. He lives in a cyber-world of technological excess. The reason I've been thinking about the contrast between my daughter's devouring of the classics versus the other child's functional illiteracy is because I'm currently reading a book called "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein who argues that this generation's wired- in and connected lifestyle leaves young people unable to think, work, read, or form real (versus cyber) relationships. Originally these modern technological marvels were hailed as cutting-edge intellectual stimulants for young minds. But this has not turned out to be the case. "If the young have acquired so much digital proficiency, and if digital technology exercises their intellectual faculties so well, then why haven't knowledge and skill levels increased accordingly?" asks the author. "If the Information Age solicits quicker and savvier literacies, why do so many new entrants into college and work end up in remediation?" Bauerlein describes the constant and ever-improving technology as "prosthetic," a chilling term when applied to the minds of children and young adults. Most of the early and highly anticipated benefits of technology on the intellect of students have turned out to be negative – so much so that some schools are actually disconnecting or discouraging the use of digital media they had encouraged with such high hopes five years before in an effort to "unplug" kids and increase test scores. Learn about the depths the secular culture goes to in corrupting your kids – read "The War on Children: How Pop Culture and Public Schools Put Our Kids at Risk" The trouble, apparently, is while kids are frighteningly savvy when it comes to all electronic media, those skills do not translate into actual knowledge. They do not retain the material they study. "When the fifth-grade teachers assign a topic, the kids proceed like this: go to Google, type keywords, download three relevant sites, cut and paste passages into a new document, add transitions of their own, print it up, and turn it in. The model is information retrieval, not knowledge formation, and the material passes from Web to homework paper without lodging in the minds of the students." Contrast this with the papers I had to write in the 1970s public (yes, public) school system. I was assigned a topic; I went to the library and found several books on the subject; read the books and hand-copied relevant passages; re-wrote the passages in my own words; organized the paper into a cohesive and logical sequence; typed the paper up on a typewriter (remember those?), and turned it in. I still remember several papers I wrote, and it's been decades. I know this makes me sound like the classic generation-gap fuddy-duddy, but I find myself shocked that an intact, educated family could lose sight of the fact that their child can't read. I find myself equally shocked that the family appears unaware of the reasons why. The family's love affair with technology continues unabated, and they applaud their children's media intelligence. "Adolescents adept at [technology] advance the collective mind and expand the storehouse of knowledge," notes Bauerlein, parroting the praise of the technophiles. "They engage in creativity and criticism, dialogue and competition, kindling thought, not deadening it. Why, then, should bibliophiles and traditionalists carp so much?" Why indeed? This is the quandary in which we find ourselves as we refuse to indulge our children with the latest electronic marvels. What's wrong with the adolescent obsession with Facebook, texting, iPads, Game Boys and the Internet? The answer becomes clear: because an increase in intelligence and knowledge hasn't materialized. In other words, our media-savvy youth are becoming – yes – the dumbest generation. It seems the old-fashioned fuddy-duddy ways of doing things had merit after all. (Column continues below) Bauerlein's concerns are that the ignorance of our young people will result in the nation sliding into apathy. I will add, do you think it's all a giant plan? Is this plethora of electronic marvels designed specifically to distract the younger generation from developing an interest in civics or politics or history? I'm not one for conspiracies so I won't take it that far, but it does make me wonder sometimes. I have my own concerns. Into what kind of world will our homeschooled, literate girls be launched? Our daughters will be square pegs in round holes. Indifferent to the exploits of Hollywood dribble, unconnected with "friends" through Facebook or Twitter, deprived of cell phones (because they don't need them) … what kind of freaks will our kids be when they leave for college? On the other hand, because of her passion for books, our older daughter (15) was invited by our local library to submit a résumé, and she now looks forward to a summer of employment encouraging kids to love reading. Our younger daughter continues to volunteer at our county animal shelter where the director can't get over her work ethic and enthusiasm. Both girls are getting a solid grounding in civics, history, math, science, writing, and geography – the old- fashioned way. Whatever freaks our girls turn out to be, they won't be dumb ones. They'll be literate ones. If that makes them freakishly different, so be it.
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#1. To: All (#0)
. THIS helps partially explain the younger mindless libTURD whores who infest this and other sites.
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
But what explains you M, Doggie Dawg? You are no paragon of high posting standards.
It is an affectation of being human to view the quality of replacements coming in behind you as one ages as dropping. This has been the perspective for as long as we have been around so never you fret none.
This explains why one of these fools could claim with a straight face that there were no gas lines during the Carter administration! LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
LOL! You foul libTURD whore, as usual corn flake boy your only purpose here is to shit all over my threads. Shouldn't you be taking phuckaroo up the kester right about now loser?
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
LOL!! You foul gibbering libTURD whore, as usual corn flake boy your only purpose here is to shit all over my threads. Shouldn't you be taking phuckaroo up the kester right about now loser?
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
My pleasure to do so too, M. Doggie Dawg. You see, when you post a thread, anyone with an account can post to it. You mean, you haven't figured that out yet?
LOL! faggot mikey you apparently think that everyone is as fence post stoopid as you are? I understand that to a gibbering libTURD whore such as you this will come as a complete surprise and mystery, but did you know faggot mikey that just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that a decent person who has even a rudimentary sense of decency and honor WILL do something? "Shocking" eh scum? Well I did say "a decent person who has even a rudimentary sense of decency and honor" which obviously leaves YOU out weasel gurl. Do your worst you little gibbering libTURD bitch.
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
I understand you don't make the rules and you have no control over who posts on threads you start. That's all I need to know, Dawg. I'll let you figure out the rest, plasma.
. I hear dWARf and freddy the butthole remora boy crying for your normal attention to their ventral vents faggot. Have a NICE day faggot.
Living in mouth breather's empty noggins 24/7/365 totally rent free!
Well, they aren't, but if they were actually gay, I wouldn't care as there is not a thing wrong with that particular orientation. And if I were gay, I would look closer to home, not online. You sweet little ever ready to be a matchmaker you.
Man,I am LOVING your new tag line! Not sure it's really true,though. Mostly because the religious leaders it's aimed at are anything but abstinent,and it seems like a lot of them joined a church in order to have sexual access to children. If they were abstinent there wouldn't be a problem. Does this mean I am defending the Catholic Church? I feel soooo "dirty"!
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
That may be true,but it is also true that most people under 30 today are almost totally illiterate and lacking in curiosity about anything other than what pop stars are doing and what is fashionable. How ironic is it that having the largest library in the history of the world (the internet) at the tips of your fingers even for the poor resulted in less curious minds? The author of this piece is correct. The younger generations gather data for temporary use,not knowledge to increase their understanding. The mind is like any other organ. You have to exercise it in order to increase it's ability to produce "work". I could see this coming when they started allowing students to use calculators in public elementary and high schools. Yeah,you can come up with the correct number by pushing the right buttons,but if you don't understand the process of how you got there you are little more than a flesh machine yourself,with no more insights or understanding than a cash register. The end result of all this is going to be MUCH less creativity and fewer inventions in the future because intellectual leaps forward are always based on a base knowledge of another subject that gives the creator a insight on how one thing can work to improve another thing or situation.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
One of my worst moments being made to go to the Catholic Church as a boy was once when I went to confession one Saturday. I confessed to an auto-erotic act not uncommon with boys my age who have not discovered the technique for befriending the fair gender in a satisfying way. He asked me if I ever put my hand on my pants pocket and dealt with playing pocket pool. He had sweat on his upper lip and the entire experience was the creepiest. Needless to say I bolted the booth without finishing. After that, I never talked to a priest unless I had to. Confession -- which I thought was dumb anyway became short, and sinless.
Which is why I read and practice writing. I have sold short stories, and since I discovered one can sell one;s stories on thew Kindle reading thingie and bypass the middleman, I'm busy polishing the apple on a book I will self publish that way. I was sent to a psychologist in first grade to have her determine how retarded I was. I would complain I was bored. I would sit and daydream out the window doing things like pretending I was morphing into birds, I drew faces on the bottle caps from the small glass bottles from lunch and developed a community in my desk. I even figured out that if I threw my cold lunch away and merely got into the hot lunch line for which I never paid money for Monday in this 1960 era before meal cards, I could eat better. I have always been a natural problem solver. Her tests showed me to be gifted in intelligence, and that is where they detected my photographic mind that mad drilling the addition and subtraction tables so boring. I notice these days when I deal with people in their jobs how many can't even spell and get annoyed if I notice something interesting and tell them about it. I've read on how it is an affectation of humanity to perceive younger people as being less than the observer and his/her generation, and so I try to give people the benefit of doubt that this is merely a perceptual thingie. But sometimes one runs into some really dumb sonuvabitch, and you wonder how much they would be screaming and rolling on the ground if stupidity was painful.
Yeah,I finally figured out that you have to be careful telling people about how excited you are to discover something new because you can see their eyes glaze over with boredom because it has nothing to do with them. BTW,I have Aspergers Syndrome and another form of Autism. Nobody that I knew had ever heard of it when I was a child,and I remember sitting in classes when I was in elementary school and holding my neck so stiff to keep from having "tics" that I wouldn't be able to turn my head when I got home. BTW,if I have to say it,being Autistic does NOT mean you are retarded. I was scary smart and had a near photographic memory before landing on my head and then having the motorcycle land on me at about 75 MPH while flat-track racing. Had amnesia for months,and all these years later my memory still isn't what it was. Not to mention getting hit in the hit with all sorts of things over the years while having lively discussions with strangers. The Aspergers may explain my life history of punching people's lights out rather than trying to reason with the assholes. I learned early that a bloody nose provided all the reason these idiots needed to leave me alone. Looking back now,it probably wasn't the best approach to take. Needless to say,I was a LOT of fun to deal with when I was drunk.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
My sister has that too. And she is scary smart. She has even posted in forums infrequently in years past and has recently taken to posting almost as much as I do. I never do a face to face with her if we have a disagreement. I've learned how to do that communication in stages with her. She recently tried opening an account at eLPee and has not gotten an answer from Goldi when asking how to go from lurker account status to where she can post. I told her Sally likely is not going to answer seeing she is posting from Eugene, OR as I do. But it's impossible to give her that information and have her act on it like others do. She has to find that out for herself. She started posting by watching me and memorizing my passwords and then posting on my accounts. She is a year and a half younger than and started correcting my spelling and helping me in Math (which I loath and she thrives on) when she was eight years old. She takes many things literally, and she doesn't nuance very well. We make an interesting pair to watch when we are out and about. We used to be 'partners in crime' growing up as we were so close in age. But her husband gets to do that more often than I do these days with I miss somewhat, but is actually fine with me.
Portland is a big place,and Goldi is known to go weeks at a time without responding to emails when she's busy. She takes many things literally, and she doesn't nuance very well. LOL! Welcome to my world. I got away with this for many years because that is the perfect personality if you are in the army or living as scooter trash. Maybe not so good for working office jobs and having to deal with office politics,though.
"I adore John McCain, support him 100 percent and will do everything I can to support his reelection. As everyone knows, I was honored and proud to run with him. And Todd and I were with him in D.C. just a week ago." (Sarah Palin,Dec 2009) ************************************ DID Palin say or write these things or not? (Me) I don't know or F ing care. (Mad Dog posted on 2009-12-26 16:36:33 ET,post # 105 http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5510&Disp=114#C114)
#2. To: Mad Dog (#1)
#3. To: Mad Dog (#1)
#4. To: All (#0)
The trouble, apparently, is while kids are frighteningly savvy when it comes to all electronic media, those skills do not translate into actual knowledge. They do not retain the material they study. "When the fifth-grade teachers assign a topic, the kids proceed like this: go to Google, type keywords, download three relevant sites, cut and paste passages into a new document, add transitions of their own, print it up, and turn it in. The model is information retrieval, not knowledge formation, and the material passes from Web to homework paper without lodging in the minds of the students."
#5. To: Ferret Mike (#2)
#6. To: Ferret Mike (#3)
#7. To: Mad Dog (#6)
#8. To: Ferret Mike (#7)
#9. To: Mad Dog (#8)
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#9)
#11. To: Mad Dog (#10)
#12. To: Ferret Mike (#2)
(Edited)
#13. To: Ferret Mike (#3)
(Edited)
It is an affectation of being human to view the quality of replacements coming in behind you as one ages as dropping. This has been the perspective for as long as we have been around so never you fret none.
#14. To: sneakypete (#12)
"Not sure it's really true,though. Mostly because the religious leaders it's aimed at are anything but abstinent,and it seems like a lot of them joined a church in order to have sexual access to children."
#15. To: sneakypete (#13)
"The mind is like any other organ. You have to exercise it in order to increase it's ability to produce "work"."
#16. To: Ferret Mike (#15)
I notice these days when I deal with people in their jobs how many can't even spell and get annoyed if I notice something interesting and tell them about it.
#17. To: sneakypete (#16)
"BTW,I have Aspergers Syndrome and another form of Autism."
#18. To: Ferret Mike (#17)
I told her Sally likely is not going to answer seeing she is posting from Eugene, OR as I do.
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